Certified Classics: These 7 Automakers Will Sell You the Perfect Vintage Car

Clifford Atiyeh

Jul 14, 2016

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From the August 2016 issue

Certified-used-car programs are a bumping side business for most automakers, but they tend to trade in late-model vehicles. For seven luxury brands in the heart of a surging collector market, though, factory restoration and certification operations are now full-time divisions unifying formerly separate parts, service, and archival departments. Their advantage over independent shops? They’ll re-create many parts from the original tooling—sometimes even with the original workers—and bless the car with a certificate that could add thousands or even millions to the price at auction time. Even though he runs one of those independent shops, Wayne Carini, longtime restorer and host of Chasing Classic Cars, sums up one possible appeal: “People buying cars now, they’re not car people. So who do they trust? It’s a stamp, a guarantee.”

Aston Martin Works

It takes 200 hours for a new $290,475 Vanquish to come together on Aston’s assembly line in Gaydon, England. But a car from Aston Martin Works, located at the old plant in nearby Newport Pagnell, requires nearly two years and is likely to cost even more. Or collectors can submit their car for certification under the Works’s $5800 four-tier process. Platinum cars are “absolutely perfect and original,” says commercial director Paul Spires. Below that are gold, silver, and bronze certifications. For $8800, Aston will perform a computer scan that can show irregularities in a car’s body length, fit, and “under its shiny paintwork, a multitude of sins,” says Spires.

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BMW Classic Center

Until 2010, BMW restored only the babies from its own private collection, many of which rotate through the company’s museum in Munich. Now, the werkes restores customer cars, maintains a stock of warrantied parts dating back to the 1955 Isetta, and issues certificates of authenticity. The latter are available for motorcycles and cars and involve a road test and inspection down to the details, such as the originality of a car’s window glazing. If you’re not in Munich, BMW will fly a tech to you and complete the $67 certificate (the entire process is far more expensive). Can’t drop a million on a refurbed 507? BMW Classic allows you to rent one of 400 cars and 170 motorcycles from the company’s 100-year history, radial aircraft engines not included.

Just as it takes prayer, hope, and a waiting list to buy a new one, having a classic Ferrari recognized by the factory requires patience. All race cars and road cars at least 20 years old are eligible. The $560 application begins at your dealer, who details every identification number, takes photos, and submits the findings to Ferrari, which may require you to ship your car to Maranello, Italy. There, Enzo’s last surviving son, Piero Ferrari, works with a small committee to personally review the results. After up to six months and $5700, your certified Ferrari carries its own hardbound red book that’s only one or two notches down from the Pope’s Bible. Restorations usually land between $100,000 and $500,000. Ferrari will do a full metallurgic analysis of the chassis, take 3D scans, match modern water-based paint to the original hue, and replace leather stitching that isn’t quite right.

Over the past year, Land Rover quietly scooped up 25 copies of its original Series I and began restoring them at the Defender plant in Solihull, England. All 25 have been sold, and Series II and III trucks will be next, alongside customer-ordered restorations. “We’re talking to parts suppliers about lifetime supplies,” says Tony O’Keeffe, who ran the Jaguar Daimler ­Heritage Trust for 19 years before leading PR for Jaguar Land Rover Classic. In addition to six-figure restorations and building all-new lightweight E-type race cars from scratch—the next such project is a series of nine XKSSs—the division also made a rubber windshield weather seal for a guy who just wants his 2003 XK8 to run forever. He might also want to spring for a four- or eight-hour “health check” at $147 per hour. For $65 more, the factory will trace a car’s history and furnish a historical certificate.

Lamborghini PoloStorico

Year founded: 2015Vehicles restored: 2Services: Parts fabrication, certification, hiring former Lambo workers to beat metal like the old daysRecently sold: 1971 Miura P400 SV ($335,000, the approximate cost of the restoration to the customer)

Lamborghini’s PoloStorico team certainly made a grand entrance. The group took the first Miura SV prototype, revealed at the 1971 Geneva auto show, and brought it back to glory for this year’s Amelia Island concours, even preserving a botched hood badge that the factory had let slip past. Lamborghini has about $56 million worth of parts inventory, with thousands of ­technical drawings and build specs. It’ll leverage them should you order the $1100 historical certificate, which details a car’s factory configuration, or a complete $6700 inspection that tears into the car’s guts to verify original parts. Full restorations start around $200,000. Currently, Sant’Agata has four Miuras, two Countach Quattro­valvoles, an LM002, and a 350GT getting such holy service.

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Mercedes-Benz Classic Center

The Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, California, could very well have sprouted from the soil, what with the Golden State’s natural penchant for SL roadsters and other ­Benzes. At this moment, there are more than a dozen 300SLs in the shop, where 22 employees do most of the metal, paint, and assembly work (a few outside machinists help, too). Only one or two full restorations are completed each year.

In Germany, where Mercedes has its main Classic Center, the brand sells all manner of fully restored cars, including prewar models. Mercedes is happy to service cars from its 50,000-part inventory or build new parts if needed. The 280SL is a particular favorite, many of which rack up six-figure restoration bills after having done nothing but sit in garages for years.

Porsche Classic

Porsche doesn’t certify or fully restore its air-cooled beauties—yet. Since opening last summer, the seven-man Classic team at Porsche’s Atlanta headquarters has been rebuilding engines, refurbishing interiors, and doing everything but paint and bodywork. For those last steps, it will ship your car to Stuttgart and squeeze it onto the new-car paint line, complete with original body jigs and tooling. But most American Porschephiles are happy for a tour, a hearty lunch, and a reasonable $155-per-hour labor rate. (For the Carrera GT, which almost always has to be partially disassembled, it’s $179.) They also come for Jack Swint, a 46-year Porsche technician with more training hours than anyone else in the company. And they can leave with a cool souvenir: a retro can of oil specially formulated for their specific flat-six.